Happy Birthday Stephen Hawking

[MrPsychic 1]

Happy Birthday Professor Hawking!

 

From Startrek.com:

Happy 65th Birthday to Prof. Stephen Hawking!

 

One of the most extraordinary individuals of our time has achieved a remarkable milestone. Prof. Stephen Hawking, the world's most renowned theoretical physicist, turns 65 today. What is so remarkable about that? Well, the mental giant who changed the landscape of modern science was never supposed to live past his 20s.

 

Dr. Hawking is an icon — bound to a wheelchair because of a degenerative neural disorder (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease), his computer-generated voice and his humor-filled, reader-friendly books have made arcane and complex scientific subjects accessible to the masses. When the Cambridge University professor visits another country, he is often treated like a rock star. And when he makes a statement of political and social significance, the media listens.

 

Of course, he's a big Trek fan, and he is the only person to portray himself in any Star Trek. We saw him in "Descent, Part I," as a hologram of himself playing poker with Data, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. (Trivia question: With what hand did he win the game? See answer below.) Prior to that episode, he was already immortalized in Trek with a shuttlecraft named after him, in "The Host." And his seminal book "A Brief History of Time" was part of Data's library at Cambridge in "All Good Things..."

 

When Hawking visited the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1993, the story goes that when he passed through the main engineering set, he paused near the warp engine, smiled, and said, "I'm working on that." (And that, presumably, was the inspiration for the title of a book co-written by William Shatner, a non-fiction about Trek-inspired technologies.)

 

Stephen Hawking was born in war-torn England on January 8, 1942, exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo. He was an awkward schoolboy, but knew early on that he wanted to study science. He became increasingly skilled in mathematics and in 1958 he and some friends built a primitive computer that actually worked. In 1959 he won a scholarship to Oxford University, where his clever intellect gained more notice. He graduated in 1962 and went on to Cambridge University to pursue a Ph.D. in theoretical astronomy and cosmology. There he became intrigued with black holes and other cosmological concepts in which the conventional laws of physics don't seem to apply.

 

He was only 21 when he started mysteriously losing his balance and falling. He was diagnosed with ALS, and doctors gave him only two or three years to live. He gradually lost the use of his arms, legs and voice, becoming almost completely paralyzed — yet, he somehow battled the odds and has survived much longer than any known ALS patient.

 

With a lot of assistance from friends and colleagues, he integrated a computer system into his wheelchair which he operates with an infrared "blink switch" clipped onto his glasses. By scrunching his right cheek up, he is able to write, compose speech to send through his famous voice synthesizer, browse the Internet and answer e-mail, and even open and close radio-controlled doors in his home and office. (Incidentally, Hawking has acknowledged that his voice synthesizer — which gives him an American accent even though he is British — is an obsolete model from 1986. But he won't part with it because he is so universally identified with that voice.)

 

At the remarkably young age of 32, Hawking was named a fellow of the Royal Society, and then in 1979 he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, the same post held by Sir Isaac Newton three centuries earlier (and by Data in an alternate future four centuries hence). And through all this he's learned one significant advantage to his disability: "I do not get put on a lot of boring committees," he said recently.

 

Despite his progressive condition, Hawking has spent the last four decades developing groundbreaking theoretical work that links Einstein's laws of relativity with quantum mechanics, contributing enormously to what physicists call Grand Unified Theory. He has greatly advanced scientific thinking regarding the origins of the universe, along with string theory, the properties of black holes, etc.

 

"My goal is simple. It is the complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all," he says.

 

In 1988 he released "A Brief History of Time," perhaps the most internationally popular science book of all time (it spent more than four years on the London Sunday Times bestseller list, longer than any book in history). And that sealed his status as a household name and, since the death of Carl Sagan, undoubtedly the most revered and sought-after spokesman for science in the world.

 

Aside from other popular books such as "The Universe in a Nutshell," Hawking recently followed up "A Brief History of Time" with "A Briefer History of Time," an update to the original and also a rewrite, attempting to make the subjects that much more understandable to those who bought the first book but couldn't get through it. That 2005 work was co-written by Leonard Mlodinow, who was story editor and writer for TNG in its second season.

 

Hawking and Mlodinow are also collaborating on a movie project called "Stephen Hawking's Beyond the Horizon," which will be a 3-D Imax film explaining theories about multidimensional space and the cause of the Big Bang. It will likely be out sometime this year.

 

Very soon you will also see Hawking on TV, as he will serve as host to Masters of Science Fiction, an anthology series on ABC drawing on talents such as Harlan Ellison, Jonathan Frakes and James Cromwell. As soon as a premiere date for that show is announced, we will let you know.

 

And the man manages to make headlines on a regular basis as he tours the world and speaks out on a variety of topics. Last summer while in Hong Kong he stressed the importance of making plans now to colonize other worlds. "It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," he said. "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of." ("Sudden global warming" is a term that makes more and more sense as scientists continually discover how rapidly we are altering our environment.)

 

Just last month he made an eight-day trip to Israel, during which he met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and expressed his concern over the deteriorating situation between Israel and the Palestinians. But an interview on Israeli television was filled with humor and optimism. "The downside of my celebrity is that I cannot go anywhere in the world without being recognized," Hawking remarked. "It is not enough for me to wear dark sunglasses and a wig. The wheelchair gives me away." He concluded that interview by saying, "However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. Where there is life, there is hope."

 

And just today it's been reported that Hawking is bound for the final frontier. "This year I'm planning a zero-gravity flight and to go into space in 2009," he told The Daily Telegraph. That flight will take place on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, and will be sponsored by Virgin's own Sir Richard Branson.

 

The Telegraph further reports that Hawking plans a quiet celebration of his birthday today with his family, and said he has no intention of retiring in the foreseeable future. "The retiring age in Cambridge is 67 but I shall continue working," he said.

 

What is further fascinating about this man is that his personal life is such a soap opera. Hawking was married to his first wife, Jane (with whom he had three children, plus a grandchild), from the 1960s until 1991 when they separated. Turns out he was having an affair with one of his nurses. Go figure. He later married that nurse, Elaine Mason, but they just divorced this past October. So girls, looks like he's available! Mothers, lock up your daughters!

 

Even though his scientific theories and explanations may fly totally over your head, there is no denying that this guy, frail as he looks and awkward as he sounds, is one of the most compelling and intriguing human beings alive. We raise a toast to Stephen Hawking on his 65th birthday, and congratulate him for his long life and prosperity, and wish him a great deal more.

[trekz 7]

Thanks for posting this, Mr. Psychic! Great article with lots of interesting details.

 

Happy Birthday, Stephen Hawking! May he continue to "Live ling and prosper!"